Page 96 - ART POOL : 11 Contemporary Art Profiles

RICHARD HORvATH | AUsTrAliA
www.redyellowblue.info

‘nature’ was made at the same time and for the same reason as the theme but his wasn’t something I was overtly concerned about
‘Ecology’ pictures. It was partly a study in blacks; Mars black, the in this case. The title is slightly ironic because my interest was
thick black paper used to pack photo-sensitive materials and the fundamentally about the visual spectacle of people immersed in
black of India Ink. It was irresistible then to add a vividly colored water and possible metaphoric meanings were secondary. I’ll leave
patch of marbled paper with the silveriness of the solder wire it to the viewer to make up their own mind what these pictures
and the pearl luster of the stylized lens flare of the moonbeam. mean (as they inevitably will do anyhow) but the aesthetic outcome
It’s a contradictory picture containing corniness, a comic book of ‘Ecology #1’ with its odd colors, the coarse rendering of the
crudeness and a certain lyrical subtlety. Ecology #1 Ecology #2 banks next to the finely toned and textured scene in the water I
:giving a picture a title such as Ecology suggests an environmental think is less in doubt.

This solitary figure floating in a dark lake is a reprise of the collage The scene of people up to their necks in water that occurs in the
Ecology. The blackened landscape resonates with the same theme of vietnam war film, Apocalypse now, fascinated me as a metaphor
terminal ecological collapse. The ring and ray emanating from the right for the moral and political mire of that conflict. In this collage
hand corner of the composition is intended to suggest camera lens the theme is retooled into a scenario of environmental collapse,
flare. It may indicate the optimism of a new dawn but the intention with two figures stuck in quicksand and contemplating a wasted
was a crude shorthand reference to an optical phenomena that turned landscape.
out to be weirdly suggestive. The background was originally a study in
blacks from different sources, however the fugitive quality of the ink
used in the sky has resulted in time robbing it of its nocturnal darkness.

| nATUre, 1989 -90 AirBrUsh, ink, pAper CUToUT, mArBlinG, phoToCopy, Fly wire mesh, leAd, solder, ACeTATe 22x16 in. | 56x42 Cm.
| eColoGy i, 1989 -90 AirBrUsh, ink, pAper CUToUT, mArBlinG, phoToCopy, Fly wire mesh, leAd, solder, ACeTATe 22x16 in. | 56x42 Cm.
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